Wizards make more height history

When I was watching Tuesday's loss to the Heat, I was thinking that it felt very much like the pre-Arenas era to me. It just felt more like the weirdly bad old days--when everything always went wrong, everyone always got hurt, the results were laughably awful and 9-20 was an annual touchstone--than last year, when some small berries of hope still remained.

Sure, Wiz fans I know insist that the team always starts slow, and that this is just a blip, but golly, it's a might turbulent blip.

Anyhow, the point of this post is that the presumed signing of Earl Boykins--reported by ESPN's Marc Stein and others--will be yet another blast from the bizarre past. I'll quote Joel Achenbach, writing in the Style section in 1993:

The Bullets have a history of taking a chance on the alternatively statured; this is the franchise that picked 5-3 Muggsy Bogues and 7-6 Manute Bol. Muresan might seem, at first glance, a sideshow, just another gimmick to boost attendance at Bullets games, like the novelty halftime acts, the T-shirt giveaways or the remote-controlled Lay's potato chip blimp that flies through the arena and drops coupons on the fans.

Indeed, if the Internet is to be believed, this will mean that the Bullets/Wizards franchise will have dressed the two tallest and the two shortest players in NBA history. It's just an amazing accomplishment, something I can't imagine any other franchise in any other sport would be able to say. It makes me proud to be a resident of this city metro area, and really, proud to be a sports fan.

I once played blackjack with Manute in Vegas, he was sitting while I was standing and he was about the same height as me.

I once gave a high five to Gheorghe after the Wiz had beaten Chicago in the playoffs. You know things are going well for you in life when you get a high five from Gheorghe Muresan.

I don't have a Muggsy Bogues story, but hopefully I will run into Earn Boykins somewhere down the road. Maybe I'll be the one sitting at a blackjack table and hopefully he'll be standing, and then maybe we'll see eye to eye.

I saw Manute walking to the urinal at Mohegan Sun at my bachelor party (apparently the guy likes to gamble). And while I'm decidedly hetero, I tried to sneak a peak because come on, the guy's 7'7". You'd be curious too. Don't judge me.

I ran into Gheorghe Muresan at Disney World a couple of years ago. Said hello, seemed like a nice guy. Looked thinner than I remember with the Bullets. He has his child with him, so he was hunched over while holding hands and walking, but he was still the tallest man I'd ever seen. I also ran into Stone Cold Steve Austin at Disney, but that's a different story.